Just a few days ago it was made official – eccentric systems cracker Gary McKinnon, known as the UFO Hacker by the news media has lost his final appeal and will be extradited to the United States to stand trial. If convicted, McKinnon is looking at 70 years in federal prison for compromising 97 computer networks operated by the US Department of Defense in his quest to prove that UFOs exist. Federal prosecutors claim that McKinnon’s actions may have interfered with their response to the events of 9/11, though there is little to no evidence supporting their claim. While I really don’t think that McKinnon will melt down if thrown in federal prison I do think that he wouldn’t last very long among the prison population, if indeed he doesn’t wind up in the facility at Guantanamo Bay having an extended heart to heart chat with with some very patient people. Supposedly McKinnon stumbled across classified documents on publically accessible unclassified machines which discussed an android soldier project (among other things), which would explain why the DoD wanted to get their hands on him in the worst way – the counterintelligence folks want to get to the bottom of this, which is their mission in life when you get right down to it.